Recent reviews by Pappi

Failure is an unavoidable fact of life. Its devilish claws knock you down when you least expect it, but it's how you react to disappointment that's important. Super Meat Boy is the digital embodiment of the idea that pleasure can spring from pain, but although death is pervasive in this 2D platformer, it does not define the experience. There is an incredible sense of satisfaction when you clear a particularly nasty level that makes the setbacks you endured to reach that lofty goal well worth it. It's the feeling you get when you miraculously squeeze through two slicing blades unscathed or leap in the air to snatch a dangling bandage that seemed impossible to reach only moments earlier that continually pushes you forward to tackle the next challenge. Super Meat Boy is an extraordinary game that makes you work for every inch you gain, which makes success taste so much sweeter when you finally get there.

Everything in Super Meat Boy begins with the controls. Within seconds of diving into the first few levels of this daunting adventure, it's clear that your onscreen movement is amazingly responsive. The titular hero jumps with such precision that you're always in complete command of your actions. Wall jumping is particularly impressive. The extreme nimbleness of your character makes it a cinch to quickly leap straight up one wall, bounce smoothly between two adjacent ones, and even contort your trajectory in midair to avoid an obstacle while you make your ascent. Super Meat Boy can sprint with the best of them, and though it might seem crazy to hurl yourself at breakneck speeds through these deadly traps, it's not a problem here. Because he responds to your every command immediately, you can tear through levels as fast as Meat can run without worrying about the controls slowing you down. Just be warned: Using the keyboard will throw a hurdle in your path to victory. A controller is the preferred option here because the keyboard does not offer the exactness needed to overcome these daunting obstacles.

The level design in Super Meat Boy is absolutely stunning. The usual tricks you would expect in a 2D platformer are here--such as spinning saws, lava pits, and shooting blades--but they are positioned in such intelligent ways that the game is extremely challenging without ever feeling cheap. There is a delicate balance on display that ensures you're pushed to the limits of your skill without becoming frustrated. One of the most impressive aspects of Super Meat Boy is how you learn and adapt while you play. The first time you enter a level, you may be presented with a jump that seems impossible. You may try and fail a few times, maybe even a few dozen times, without any idea what you're supposed to do. But once you figure out the timing to succeed, you can pull off even the toughest moves with a good degree of consistency. Being able to conquer levels that previously seemed impossible is an exhilarating feeling, and the ease with which you become proficient is a testament to how precise the controls are and how meticulously designed the levels are.

Death is commonplace in Super Meat Boy. When you reach the harder levels, you may end up dying a dozen times before you pass the first pit, and more than a hundred before you reach the end. With failure such an expected occurrence, you might think this game is frustrating. It rarely is. Although you will inevitably be frustrated at times, Super Meat Boy goes a long way toward lessening your irritation. The precise controls and imaginative level design go a long way toward alleviating any throw-your-controller reactions, but the reason frustration is avoided goes even deeper than that. The upbeat soundtrack does a great job of keeping your energy at a high level without ever distracting you from the carnage that lies ahead. Each song also changes slightly, so even if you're stuck at a particularly wicked stage for an hour or more, the catchy riff never gets repetitive. The lack of extreme punishment also helps a lot. Although you die if any obstacle hits you, you do have infinite lives. Also, because levels usually last less than 30 seconds, even though you have to start from the beginning each time, you never have to retrace much ground. Finally, the extreme focus needed to pass these difficult stages ensures that you're zeroed in on completing your task rather than beating yourself up for falling short. This is an amazingly well designed game that avoids the frustration of failure by insulating you from your own aggravation.

The core mechanics and level design are absolutely superb in Super Meat Boy, and the wealth of content ensures you'll be playing this excellent platformer for quite a long time. There are more than 300 levels in all, most of them optional, and many of them are hidden. To reach the end you need to play through all of the light world levels, which include traditional platforming challenges along with a few clever boss fights. You have as much time as you need to pass each level, but if you reach the end under a specific mark, you unlock a dark version of that same level. This is when things get really difficult. The dark world puts a cruel twist on the light levels, and it can take all of your determination to rise above these daunting tests. It's a good thing the dark world is optional, so you can play through the slightly easier light world before you dive into the furnace. But the bonus content doesn't stop there. There are warp zones hidden in certain levels that whisk you to a three-level obstacle course that's a bit easier than standard levels but gives you a finite number of lives to make it through alive. On top of that are glitch world levels, which are as hard to unlock as they are to finish, and the goofily named Teh Internets, which is updated periodically with new levels. It takes lots of hours to plow through all this content, and you'll be glued to the edge of your seat the whole time.

Super Meat Boy is an extremely difficult game, but that doesn't mean it lacks a sense of humor. The setup is just as preposterous as the traps you have to overcome, setting the stage for a daunting adventure that always has a smile on its lips. Meat Boy's girlfriend, Bandage Girl, has been kidnapped by Dr. Fetus. You may wonder how an unborn baby could possibly have a medical degree, but the bigger question is: What is he wearing? He struts around in a mechanical suit clad in a spiffy tuxedo with a top hat on his dome. Certainly the sign of an evil individual. At the completion of each boss fight, a cartoony cinematic rolls, and these are a great reward for your hard work. The cutscenes are sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, but always entertaining. It's amazing how many emotions play out without any dialogue, but that's part of the beauty of this incredible game. It never lets its simplicity hold it back from greatness.

It's impossible to point to just one element that makes Super Meat Boy such an extraordinary game. From the intense-though-always-fair difficulty and the inspired level design, to the pinpoint controls and catchy soundtrack, all of the different aspects converge into something that is truly outstanding. When you hear stories of the unrepentant dangers that stand in your path, it's easy to get intimidated by such a daunting prospect. But don't be. The beauty of Super Meat Boy is that it always plays within the rules, and the smooth difficulty curve gives you plenty of time to become acquainted with everything before the true tests are unleashed. Death is always just one misstep away in Super Meat Boy, but the rush of winning is so supremely rewarding that you won't be able to tear yourself away.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number's action is so loud and intense that upon hitting the pause button, reality feels like it's playing at half speed. It's the type of experience that invites you to sit closer to the screen and crank up the volume higher than usual. One of the lingering memories of the first game was its heart-pounding techno soundtrack, so allow me to get this out of the way: The music in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is absolutely outstanding. But to revel in the game's slick style too much would be a disservice to its ferociously entertaining and challenging top-down action. This is a confident follow-up which improves upon the original in almost every way. Hotline Miami 2 is more varied, paced better, fairer, and more challenging. This is a tremendously stylish game which entertains throughout, and delights in forcing you out of your comfort zone.

Hotline Miami 2 is a top-down twitch shooter in which you play as one of many available psychopaths who, for an assortment of reasons, are required to enter various buildings and kill everyone therein. You commit these massacres using a variety of weapons: shotguns, automatic rifles, silenced pistols, knives, pipes, and even your fists. But regardless of the delivery method, death comes quick. Don't expect to soak up damage or pick up health packs. This is a game in which a single bullet can kill you and your foes, and in which on-your-toes tactics and a quick trigger finger mean the difference between completing a level and respawning over and over and over.

How you choose to clear each area in the game's thirty-or-so levels is largely up to you. You can run and gun with reckless abandon or use a loud shotgun burst to lure nearby enemies into your path. Maybe you'd prefer to use a door to knock-out enemies and finish them off silently. Whichever method of murder you choose, the engagements are exhilarating. Though planning your attack will net the best results, the intense visuals, thumping techno soundtrack, and score multiplier will seduce you into risking it all in one glorious, foolhardy charge. Hotline Miami 2 is a high-saturation feast for the eyes, where points burst out of fallen enemies as the screen tilts and sways to the movement of your character. The game's striking color palette and VCR motif evoke the in-your-face TV style of the late 80s and early 90s. Each level's floors, walls, and furnishings are vibrantly colored, though by the time you've finished any given level, much of it is painted an electric crimson.

While the first game was centered around a single mask-swapping protagonist massacring operations run by the Russian Mafia, Hotline Miami 2 darts back and forth between dozens of characters and locations. At one moment, you're a journalist attempting to use non-lethal takedowns in a subway station; At the next, you're a soldier using a flamethrower to incinerate enemy forces in Hawaii. While you spend a lot of time running around buildings, there's far more more variety in terms of level design. Halls and rooms have more interesting angles, extra windows, more open areas, and multiple lanes for enemies to approach from: while better enemy placement creates increased diversity in the types of engagements you'll encounter. The melee-resistant dogs return, as do fat enemies which are impervious to anything other than bullets. But they're joined by bullet-ducking samurai, running enemies who leap to close the distance, and a selection of level-specific mini-bosses. This is a game about planning your engagements and reacting to how the enemies attack. With more diverse levels populated with better placed and more varied foes, Hotline Miami 2 becomes a far more entertaining and challenging experience than its predecessor.

This ever-shifting pace and variety allows Hotline Miami 2 to be more restrictive in other ways. While the first game gave you the freedom to select a mask--and thus, a special ability--before each level, the character choices here are a lot more rigid--and this is to the game's credit. Though you can sometimes choose from a small selection of weapons, or select a specific sociopath, the story typically forces you to play a particular character. No longer can you choose the Tony the Tiger mask to silently take down people in every single level.

Instead, the game encourages you to get better at shooting by forcing you to play as more run and gun characters. For instance, Mark the Bear uses two machine guns, holding them out at arm's length, John Woo style, when you press the alternate fire button. My personal favorite character, however, is actually a swan-mask-wearing duo--Alex and Ash--who runs with a chainsaw in the front, and guns in the back. While you can always use the lock-on button to cue up shots ahead of time, there's a spectacular joy in chainsawing one group of enemies while popping off reinforcements as they enter the room. These are a but a handful of the dozen-or-so characters you'll play as during Hotline Miami 2's campaign.

So what is there to say about the story? There's a lot more of it, for one. The first third of the game has you sitting through long periods of confusing exposition that do little to clarify exactly what's going on. But even when Hotline Miami's story eventually finds its pace, you're probably not going to be taken aback by the narrative. The original game intentionally obfuscated what was going on behind an unreliable narrator and secret endings, and much of that continues here. Callbacks to the first game, shifts in perspective, and furious timeline swapping make the story read better on a second playthrough. The story's main success is in creating a surreal experience that's best enjoyed by letting the specifics wash over you.

Hotline Miami 2 is a challenging, often difficult, game, but playing through it's varied levels is so enjoyable that dying rarely feels like punishment. The game's grading system gives you an excuse to return to levels, but its neon-hot style is an even more inviting reason to play again and again. The experience is so audiovisually seductive that you find yourself replaying zones just for the sake of it. Hotline Miami 2's vibrant palette, outlandish early 90s style, and intense music make it difficult to resist. The soundtrack sees returning artists such as Perturbator and Jasper Bryne supply a breadth of synth and techno tracks, alongside a host of new musicians. Smooth post-rock guitar stylings find a home beside heartwarming house beats and a particularly threatening dubstep number. Not only is the music as exceptional as the first game's, but there's also a lot more of it.

Actually, there's a lot more of everything: I completed the original Hotline Miami in about three hours, but by the time Hotline Miami 2's credits had rolled, I'd registered almost nine. Of course, this was before I had started over with the unlockable hard mode, which adds enemies and removes the ability to lock on shots--and before I had toyed around with the game's level editor, which is currently in the alpha testing stage.

In almost every way, Hotline Miami 2 is a marked improvement on an already tremendous formula. This is a game that had me pumping my fists and laughing with joy throughout my time with it, and I was left despondent by the time it drew to a close. A gutsy, refined game that isn't scared to force you into corners and watch you battle out of them, as well as an audiovisual joy that marries graphics, music, and gameplay so well that even the pause screen is a work of art.

After Saints Row: The Third, it was hard to imagine how this series of increasingly zany open-world crime games could possibly get any zanier. Rather than attempting to tackle that challenge head-on, Saints Row IV sidesteps it by being an almost completely different type of open-world game. Sure, the core of Saints Row is still there; there are still plenty of absurd weapons, costumes, and activities. But the way you interact with the world has changed. No longer are you an ordinary earthbound mortal. Saints Row IV turns you into a superhero capable of running up the sides of buildings and flinging people with your mind. This isn't a refined game or a challenging one, but it is a sometimes hilarious playground of a game that gives you plenty of fun abilities to use and plenty of opportunities to use them.

How does the game explain your new capacity for doing things like leaping tall buildings in a single bound and zapping enemies with freeze blasts? It's simple. You saved the world from a terrorist threat and became the president of the United States. Then Earth was invaded by aliens, and the evil alien overlord had you placed in a Matrix-style computer simulation of a city where, much like Neo, you can acquire all manner of abilities that break the rules of the simulation.

Saints Row IV mines its goofy premise for all it's worth. When "What Is Love" by Haddaway comes on as you're escaping from an alien spaceship, the juxtaposition of grim sci-fi visuals with '90s dance beats is so unexpected that it's delightful. And there's an infectious joy in the way your extremely customizable character, puckish rogue that he or she is, delights in it all, whether you've opted for one of the male voices, one of the female voices, or the aptly named Nolan North voice.

The simulation in which you spend most of the game is a virtual re-creation of the city of Steelport, and the city's layout hasn't changed much since Saints Row: The Third, but the evil alien overlord, Zinyak, has remodeled a bit, and he likes to keep it gloomy. Because there's no day-night cycle during the course of the campaign and the whole city is shrouded in darkness, Steelport is a drab, monotonous setting. But it's much more attractive on the PC, where objects are sharp and defined well into the distance, than it is on consoles, where objects even a short distance away look muddy by comparison.

Given that this is a game in which you can run around naked shooting people with an Inflato-Ray, you might expect the humor throughout to be crass and juvenile. And, for the most part, it is, but not always in the ways you expect. The game's humor is unabashedly stupid, but it's smart about being stupid, working in references to Shakespeare, clarifications about the distinction between alliteration and assonance, and knocks at those silly people who don't know the difference between a robot and a mech suit. The banter among Saints is consistently sharp and will definitely have you laughing out loud on numerous occasions.

Very early on in Saints Row IV, you acquire the abilities to leap incredibly high and to sprint at superhuman speeds, and by collecting ubiquitous glowing blue clusters, you can enhance these abilities and the others you gradually unlock. Once you can sprint, you'll probably hardly ever use a vehicle again, since you can run faster than any car, which makes all of the car customization options carried over from earlier games feel a bit superfluous. But it's hard to lament the lack of emphasis on vehicles given the exuberance that can accompany leaping 15 stories into the air and gliding all the way across town.

Those collectible clusters are visible from a great distance, so on your way from point A to point B, you're constantly incentivized to divert from your path, zipping up this building or leaping atop that house to collect them. And if you've attracted too much unwanted attention from the authorities, you can wipe out your notoriety by pursuing a golden snitch-like alien computer orb as it zips around the streets of Steelport and destroying it. It's a refreshing take on the common process of wiping out your wanted level in open-world games, and one that makes using your sprint ability a lot of fun.

While sprinting may replace driving as your primary way of getting around, the powerful attack abilities you acquire, like freeze blast and telekinesis and stomp, don't totally replace your regular weapons, but instead just augment your arsenal. Your offensive abilities need a brief time to recharge, so in between each use, you have a reason to switch to another ability or fire a few shots of whatever weapon you have handy. Unfortunately, though enemies may sometimes overwhelm you through sheer numbers, their AI is thoughtless, so the satisfaction of battle comes not from overcoming a challenge, but from reveling in the power fantasy of obliterating them with energy swords and dubstep guns.

Because the game is so good about doling out new weapons and abilities at a steady pace, you often feel like you have some fun new toy with which to torment your puny alien oppressors. However, because you have so many ways of so effectively overcoming them, combat eventually starts to feel rote and inconsequential, and you may often find yourself just freeze-blasting and shattering your enemies repeatedly to be done with a fight as quickly as possible. And it doesn't help that even though many of your weapons have crazy visual effects or other gimmicks associated with them, they lack any sense of oomph.

Thankfully, there are activities that give you a compelling reason to use some of your abilities. In the twisted game show Mind Over Murder (from the mind of returning murderous madcat Professor Genki), you need to use telekinesis to hurl people, cars, and Genki heads through designated hoops, and it's empowering to zip around the city streets, picking up hapless pedestrians and sending them flying for your own benefit. But the best activities are the old familiar standbys. Hopping into a tank to cause as much destruction as possible is a simple, explosive pleasure, and hurling yourself into oncoming traffic is still good for a few morbid laughs.

Saints Row IV definitely recycles plenty of ideas from earlier games in the series, but it's also frequently inventive, not just in its shift from absurd crime game to absurd crime game with superpowers, but in the content of its story missions. You play a 2D beat-'em-up, return to the series' Stilwater-set early days, complete a Metal Gear Solid-esque stealth mission, battle a Godzilla-size can of the Saints Flow energy drink, and get embroiled in all manner of other insanity. Almost every core story mission and optional crew loyalty mission has an entertaining concept or a funny surprise in store. However, these missions often focus on the same ho-hum combat you find throughout the game, so even though the ideas on display are varied, the gameplay feels a bit flat. Still, it's well worth playing through the story missions just because of their outrageous scenarios and sharp writing.

Even if combat sometimes falls into a rut, there are more than enough surprises in the game's story missions to keep you entertained, and as in previous games, you can increase the mayhem by inviting a friend along to do missions and other activities. Saints Row IV owes a lot to games like Crackdown and Prototype, but the absurd humor that infuses every aspect of this game gives it an identity all its own. The simulated city of Steelport doesn't offer deep gameplay or the most satisfying challenge, but it is a great place to mess around.

Last year Left 4 Dead unleashed a harrowing and entertaining vision of what it's like to be on both sides of the zombie apocalypse. Whether you were shooting your way through hordes of infected (the preferred nomenclature) en route to possible rescue, or scheming with your fellow superpowered zombies (an acceptable colloquialism) in an effort to choke, eviscerate, and otherwise kill the intrepid survivors, Left 4 Dead was enormously fun. The only real drawback was the shortage of content. Left 4 Dead 2 does not have this problem, offering five new campaign maps that can be enjoyed across five uniquely engaging game modes. These campaigns are more diverse, more atmospheric, and more exciting, thanks largely to the stellar level design. Left 4 Dead 2 also improves on the original in almost every other way, featuring new weapons, new items, new enemies, and new survivors that make the game richer across the board. Though the core action remains largely unchanged, the widespread enhancements make Left 4 Dead 2 even better than its impressive predecessor. This is one zombie apocalypse you do not want to miss.

The heart of Left 4 Dead 2 is the five campaign maps that take the survivors through a wide variety of terrain in the Deep South. From murky swamplands to a creepy carnival ground, from flooded suburbs to claustrophobic city streets, every environment is detailed and immersive. Clever design touches abound, some of which are clues that show you which way to progress. It's deceptively easy to get turned around, especially since you aren't the only ones who have been leaving piles of bodies around. Left 4 Dead 2's environments help tell a story, and as you travel through the remains of a massive government-organized evacuation effort, you get a better sense of how it all went down. The campaigns now string together to make one long adventure, and though the oppressive, desperate mood seethes more potently this time around, there is still plenty of levity and high-impact excitement. Well-timed survivor quips make trudging through zombie-infested swamps a bit less nerve-racking, and thunderous rainstorms make a tense final stand (the moments right before your rescue) even more dramatic. The sound design is a standout once again, filling the air with eerie strains and helpful cues, as well as conveying the full range of the survivors' emotions. This rich atmosphere is enhanced by the wider variety of choke points and final stands, all of which give the campaigns their own unique pace.

Into these grim landscapes come four new survivors. This new crop is more lively and talkative than the first bunch, and Ellis' good-ol'-boy stories about crazy stuff that he and his buddy Keith did one time are bound to make you chuckle. There is a new crop of guns as well, including multiple versions of pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, and assault rifles. These different flavors go a long way toward spicing up the gunplay, but the standout new addition is the melee weapons. A fire axe, a crowbar, a cricket bat, and a frying pan are just some of the objects you can use to slice, bludgeon, and decapitate your enemies. They take the place of your secondary weapon, but you still have a sidearm you can whip out if you are incapacitated. Using these weapons forces you to get up close and personal with the infected, affording you a better view of the carnage but also putting you at higher risk. Still, nothing stops a horde like a katana-wielding survivor standing tall in a doorway. Melee weapons are a great new strategic asset and add a very enjoyable new dimension to combat.

Part of the reason melee weapons are so fun to use is that the infected die in a lot of gruesomely entertaining ways. Dismemberment and gibbing have been ratcheted up in Left 4 Dead 2, so you'll be chopping off limbs and blowing holes in zombie abdomens like you were born to do it. The common infected models are more diverse and detailed, and there are a number of tougher variants that pose a bit more of a challenge. Some of them can take more damage, like the ones in hazmat suits and riot gear, while others move more quickly and can obscure your view, like the swampy mudmen. These "uncommon common" won't throw a huge wrench in the works, but they add some welcome variety and help further diversify your enemies.

The foes that will derail your progress are the special infected. These zombies have superpowers that make them seriously dangerous, and all the baddies from Left 4 Dead make an encore appearance. There are a few new nasties to contend with as well, including the Jockey (jumps on your head and steers you off course), the Spitter (shoots a pool of deadly acid on the ground), and the Charger (rams into you, carries you away, and pounds you into the ground). There's also a variety of Witch that actually walks around as opposed to just sitting and weeping, and she rounds out the formidable roster of special infected. These enemies are tricky to contend with in the field, especially when a few of them descend on you at the same time. They are even nastier when they are controlled by your fellow players. One of the best parts of the zombie apocalypse is being part of the problem, and unlike its predecessor, Left 4 Dead 2 makes every campaign available for Versus play right from the start. Playing Versus mode allows you and your team to spawn as special infected and coordinate attacks in your efforts to make sure the survivors don't make it out alive. Nothing eases the frustration of being dragged away from your fellow survivors by a Smoker's tongue like jumping on a survivor's head and jockeying him into a pool of burning acid. Versus mode plunges you into an engaging mix of competition and cooperation as you and your team alternate trying to survive and trying to kill.

Though it comes a mere one year after the original, Left 4 Dead 2 is a much better game and much better value. The new campaigns and unique game modes offer more variety and more longevity, while all the other additions and tweaks make the already great gameplay even more enjoyable. Even the AI has improved a little bit, and while they still aren't big on using pipe bombs or Molotovs and are prone to missteps, they seem to have a better grasp of tactics and will follow you a bit more closely. Still, Left 4 Dead 2 is best enjoyed with friends. Every mode allows two-player splitscreen and is seamlessly integrated online. Though the core gameplay remains pretty much the same, there is more than enough new content and improved action to make this zombie apocalypse highly recommendable.

Dota 2 is hard, but there's a huge reward for those who commit. On the surface, the game is a like-for-like reproduction of the genre-creating (and still updated) Defense of the Ancients modification for Warcraft III, now transferred into Valve's Source engine. The game's punishing design is sometimes enough to drive you up the wall, but it's worth sticking the hours in: success in Dota 2 is about learning to effectively juggle both the broad strokes and finer details.

If you're not aware of the basics of the burgeoning MOBA genre, two teams of five players spawn on corners of a map. Each team needs to work together with the goal of ultimately destroying a central structure--in Dota 2's case, the Ancient--in the opposing team's base. With most games lasting around the 40-minute mark, and occasionally edging past an hour, watching the enemy fortress dramatically crumble and sink to the ground feels like an exhilarating payoff.

Aiding these two teams, named the Radiant and the Dire, are waves of AI assistants, called creeps. Batches of creeps spawn at 30-second intervals and charge merrily up the map's three pathways. In the clumps of remaining land lies a jungle, where numerous AI opponents spawn, offering lucrative benefits to players who take them on successfully. Finally, and in a bid to stop both teams from simply marching into one another's base, each team gets three powerful towers on each lane that easily shred through enemy players at the start of the game.

Your individual ability to control and affect the rhythm of the game comes from how well you handle your hero. You mostly control a single unit in Dota 2, though there are exceptions: some heroes can summon controllable allies, such as bears, gargoyle babies, or wolves; one exceptionally versatile hero can split into three; and one item lets you take control of certain creeps. For each rule in Dota 2's impressive house-of-cards design, there's usually at least one character who completely ignores it, or finds a way around it via one of 130-odd items available from the in-match shop. For instance, try negating magic attacks with the black king bar, returning damage with the blade mail, or pounding out two ultimate abilities in quick succession with a refresher orb.

The aim for most players is to accumulate as much gold and experience as possible, with income being delivered mostly by scoring the killing blow on enemy creeps and players. It's almost always easier to gang up on stray enemies as a group, which is why it's rarely a good idea to run about on your own. Then it's a case of splashing all your hard-earned money on some ultra-powerful items from the shop, while levelling up your base stats and abilities, and then clobbering the enemy team into submission via a few five-versus-five team fights. Rarely does it feel that simple, however.

At the time of writing, 102 of the original Dota's 112 heroes have made their way into the sequel. Each hero has a handful of unique abilities and generally works best in a specific role, such as supporting other players as Omniknight, roaming around the map looking for opportunistic kills as Spirit Breaker, or evolving throughout the course of the game into an all-powerful vehicle of carnage and destruction as Phantom Assassin.

There's only one map, unlike in many other MOBA titles, although Valve has not ruled out the addition of more over time, and has previously offered game-changing modes with seasonal events at Halloween and Christmas. But Dota 2's single sprawling map sets itself apart from the competition by being larger, more intricate, and packed with greater detail than the rest of the genre. Unlike in League of Legends, the jungle area is riddled with far more tangling pathways, the lanes feature additional shops selling exclusive items, and savvy players are given more opportunities to use the environment to hide, flee, and ambush their opponents.

Often the game's dizzying scale is seen as off-putting or simply too complex, but the truth of Dota is that it can be entertaining as a new player to just sit down and let all those extraneous factors play out around you. Getting down to the brass tacks of the game with a group of like-minded friends is a lot of fun: start by buying your characters' recommended items, try your best not to get caught out of position, and get into the habit of buying observer wards. And watch out for Riki.

As you'd expect from Valve, this is a beautifully presented game, with the Half-Life and Portal maker running victory laps around its competition in terms of UI, voice acting, and showing how to deftly add real personality to its characters. Only recently has the developer turned its attention to gently easing new players into the proceedings, however, and even now, mastering the basics feels like learning to swim by jumping in at the deep end. Efforts are being made to remedy this, though: right now there are a couple of tutorial levels, some well-designed AI bots, and a newbie playlist that restricts hero selection to just 20 of the most frequently picked characters. And with community-created hero guides now built directly into the game itself, Dota 2 is much easier to get started with than it has been in the past.

Play a match every evening for a couple of weeks, and you start to see how Dota 2's wealth of disparate systems and mechanics combine into their own harmony, and you begin to understand how there are hundreds of elements that affect the game. Dota 2 is a tense war of accumulation and attrition. The biggest problem, which is coincidentally where the real excitement of the game lies, comes from struggling to process and interpret dozens upon dozens of mitigating circumstances while simultaneously trying to keep your cool.

It is a complicated and exhausting game, and for the first few weeks, it's challenging just keeping up with the general rhythm of a match. But invest enough time into Dota 2, and you develop an almost unconscious ability to keep up with the game--performing actions such as sending the slightly fiddly in-game courier over to the faraway "secret" shop to get some rare items, for instance. After a couple of hundred hours of Dota 2, what once felt like spinning plates just happens automatically.

While Dota 2 has transferred the core of the original Dota into a cleaner, modern engine, the fact remains that losing is uniquely painful. Death in Dota 2 not only gives your opponent money, but robs you of some of your own and leaves you waiting up to a minute to respawn. By the time you've trudged back across the game's massive map--or spent money on a teleportation scroll--your opponent is now stronger and richer. Die two or three times in quick succession, which is easily done, and a match of Dota becomes a painful experience where you spend the next half hour getting bullied by an increasingly superior enemy. Other games in the genre have tried to mitigate this punishment, but Dota 2 positively revels in its complexities. The rich just get richer.

The original Dota was an unexpectedly powerful blend of clashing genres and disparate elements that ended up taking over the world, and Valve's successor retains the original rules and characters while adding in a cheery free-to-play model and slick production values. The experience of playing Dota changes day by day--some evenings will be exhilarating, while others will kick your morale to the curb--but there are few games as worthy of your time investment as this. Those who choose to commit to Dota 2 will find many happy hours within this immaculate update.

"You feel an evil presence watching you." The warning message flashes on the bottom of the screen while you're busy chopping down trees in the forest. Night has fallen over the land of Terraria, a time for evil monsters to wake from their daylight slumber and assert their dominance. You need shelter if you're going to survive their deadly onslaught, but your time has run out. "The Eye of Cthulhu has awoken!" A roar from the darkness sends a chill down your spine. You equip your sword, ready your healing potions, and dig in for a fierce battle while a full moon gazes down. This colorful 2D adventure keeps you on guard by sending demons and monsters to kill you when you least expect it. You're never safe in Terraria. Surprises abound, both nefarious and empowering. In the dead of night, you may find your home invaded by a goblin army. But on the next night, you may find a treasure chest rich with helpful items. Terraria is a deeply rewarding adventure that continually urges you onward to see what lies ahead.

Your adventure begins in a colorful land populated by towering trees, glistening lakes, and flowering pastures as far as the eye can see. After creating a character and choosing which size randomly generated world you want to start in (small, medium, or large), you're thrust into the game with nary a hint to help you understand what you're supposed to do. A guide wanders nearby, and he doles out advice when you click on him, but it's a poor way of introducing you to the basics. His tips aren't descriptive enough to get you started, and persistent enemy slimes have a knack for distracting you while he's dishing out his vague advice. Terraria is a game about discovery and exploration, and the thrill of happening upon something completely unexpected is a huge part of the draw, but this is still a poor tutorial. You're better off glancing at online guides to get your bearings in the early going than blindly trying to figure out what you're supposed to do.

With a little research or experimentation, you figure out that your first order of business is to build a shelter. You begin the game with a copper pickaxe and axe, and you use these to chop down trees and gather resources. A clever crafting system gives you the power to construct almost anything you might need on your journey. All you need to do is enter your inventory screen, and every item you can currently create is listed in a sidebar. Once you cut down a few trees, you can build a workbench, and from there a world of possibilities opens up. A workbench lets you build more-complex items, such as a hammer and sword, and you use these items to venture out into the dangerous unknown. Eventually, you can craft guns, explosives, and even magical items, but you have to put in a lot of work to get to that level. In the early going, your focus is to find materials to construct basic weapons and armor. Your wooden sword works well enough against docile slimes, but if you want to take on ruthless skeletons, you should forge a weapon made of gold.

Terraria is an open-ended game that never sets clear goals. You decide how you want to play, and there's always a new territory for intrepid explorers to venture off to. The controls handle like a traditional platformer, allowing you to easily jump around the expansive environments. Melee weapons have a wide range, so you don't have to be precise with your swinging, and you aim your long-range attacks with your mouse for quick shots. But you're not going to make much progress if you just hang out on the surface. The worlds are gigantic (even the small maps), and most of that space is underground. That's where the most valuable minerals are located, and also the scariest monsters. You use your pickaxe to dig through underground mines, gather resources to forge better equipment, and then use your new tools to get deeper with each visit. It's a tantalizing reward system that continually pushes you along to see what else you can find. Small pleasures carry you through much of this adventure. You may find yourself chipping away at useless rock and dirt for minutes at a time, desperate to find something of value. And then, out of the corner of your eye, you see a sparkle amid the gloom and point your pickaxe in that direction. A small cache of silver awaits. It may not sound like much, but you need it to build the next set of tools, and the feeling of joy when you find such a treasure is hard to contain.

Rewards go beyond the simple raw materials you need to craft better items. There are hidden treasure chests located in out-of-the-way places that are bursting with rare goodies. You may gain the ability to double jump or slowly regenerate health from handy accessories, and the promise of these invaluable items urges you to explore as much of the vast underground as you possibly can. Of course, you don't have to stay below the surface all the time. There are plenty of places to visit aboveground, too. Floating islands tempt you to get off your duff and see what secrets the sky has to offer. There are items that can be found only in these gravity-defying locales, so it's well worth your effort to sniff out where the islands are hiding and build a ladder to the heavens. Terraforming is instrumental in your progress. With just your pickaxe and some ingenuity, you can shape the world to your liking, not only building pathways in the sky, but also intricate underground tunnels to help you smoothly progress. Terraria is a game that is built on rewards. No matter where you go and what you do, you get something for your effort. Whether it's a new sword or just the knowledge that a bubbling lava pool lays at the bottom of a long drop, you're always better prepared the next time you set off. Progression is slow and steady, and seeing your character grow from a hero in training to an all-powerful killing machine is an incredible feeling.

Terraria is a lonely place, but it doesn't have to be. There are non-playable characters to recruit if you meet certain requirements. These range from a merchant to a nurse and even a demolitions expert, and they provide a handy way to nab powerful tools to make your adventuring more exciting. There's also an online cooperative mode that lets four players band together. The core structure is identical to that of the single-player game, but having a few friends to help you take down bosses and explore dungeons makes everything that much more fun. Unfortunately, setting up a co-op world is tricky business. You need to host your own server, and you can invite others only by sharing your IP address. It's a clumsy system that makes it a pain to get started. Thankfully, things run smoothly once the dirty work is out of the way, but it would be nice if the online mode were more accessible.

Inaccessibility is the one flaw that haunts this great game. The early hours are punishing because you have no idea what you're supposed to do, and the lack of direction makes Terraria initially off-putting. But after sinking dozens of hours into this impressive game, you'll wonder how you could ever have been frustrated. There are so many surprises to uncover and rewards to unlock that once you get the basics down, you'll be hard pressed to tear yourself away. Whether you're trying to break shadow orbs in the corrupted land or constructing a labyrinth passageway to combine water with lava, there's always something demanding your attention. Terraria is a unique and engrossing experience that is extremely difficult to tear yourself away from once you become invested in its enticing world.

It's creepy, blasphemous, and obsessed with poo. Despite all that, good luck walking away from The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. This remake of the scatological 2012 original from developer Edmund McMillen (best known for Super Meat Boy) doubles down on the dementia with even more surreal power-ups and bizarre enemies. I still don't know exactly what I've been playing for the last six or seven hours non-stop, but I know that I liked it and that I want to go back for more.

Actually, Rebirth is easy to categorize on the surface. The game is a basic roguelike, with tips of the hat to the frenzied combat in Robotron. The feel is decidedly old-school in that the top-down maps are randomly generated and you have to plow through the entire game in one sitting (so don't die, or you're going right back to the beginning). If you've ever played a classic arcade game, you know the drill. You run around constantly, shoot everything that moves, and grab power-ups. Repeat through each level until you kill the end boss or die and start all over again a little bit older and little bit wiser.

But that stock description sells the game short. From here, things get strange. Really strange. Instead of the usual warrior elf or whatever, you play a little boy named Isaac. Sound kind of sweet? It isn't. Isaac is on the run from his mother, who has some kind of prophecy/mental meltdown in the stick-figure opening cinematic and tries to kill her son on the orders of God. Apparently, taking away the kid's Game Boy and toys isn't enough for old Jehovah, who insists on mom doing the Abraham thing and sacrificing her son to prove her love. Just before mom bursts into Isaac's bedroom with a butcher knife, though, he escapes down a hatchway into a creepy basement, and the game is on.

So if you've spent time in a cult or have any sort of mother issues, you might want to close your eyes during the intro video. And maybe later on, too. Finishing each level earns the questionable reward of a new cinematic, which always features some horrific nightmare like other kids pooping on Isaac, his mother constantly kicking him away, him falling to his death, and someone handing him a gift box filled with (what else?) poop. The game also continually ventures back into strange Christian references. Isaac seems pulled between good and evil. At times, the game veers toward the Satanic, with various demonic options and power-ups. At other times, it shows an internal struggle as Isaac takes on various doppelganger foes representing deadly sins like sloth and envy. The game always goes out of its way to be unique and maybe make you think that it has a deeper message, even when it almost certainly doesn't.

McMillen really brings the weird when the game gets rolling. Isaac's health is tracked with hearts (you start with just three, and new ones are few and far between in the game), and his only weapon is his tears, which form into watery bullets. The basement and cave levels below the house are disturbingly filled with big piles of swirly cartoon poop (that comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors) and poop-related monsters like anthropomorphic piles of crap that fling smaller piles of crap at you and all sorts of related creepy crawlies likes flies, spiders, slugs, and so forth, along with demon spawn like animated dead babies (that frequently explode when killed, spraying bloody viscera all over the place). Power-ups are equally loony-tunes. There are hundreds of these goodies in the game, some passive, some active, and all are surreal, blasphemous, or an inventively sick combination of the two. Isaac can pick up the Stigmata power-up and start shooting more powerful bloody tears. The Black Bean causes Isaac to spew toxic fart clouds whenever he is attacked. A Placenta boosts health. The severed heads of various pets provide all kinds of buffs, as do Tarot cards, evil books, and so forth. Cancer gives you -- ah, I don't even know or want to know. It was enough for me to see Isaac shout, "Yay, cancer!" when he picked it up.

At first, it's hard to know what to think of all this. I alternated between nervous laughter and being sort of grossed out. Then the game took over, and suddenly the idea of whistling poop boss monsters didn't seem all that crazy. Beyond all the insanity, Rebirth is a fantastic arcade shooter. Combat speed, a variety of enemies, and alternating types of rooms keep you off-kilter just enough so that the game never gets repetitive. One moment, you're taking on blackened babies in a huge cavern, and the next, you're dealing with poisonous slugs in a cramped room loaded with obstacles.

Levels also hit you with optional challenges, like rooms that can only be opened with keys, dangerous rooms with toothy doors, shops where you can buy items, special rooms like an arcade where you can play games to try to earn items, and much more. You also have to make tough calls at times. Hmm, I'm down to just one heart. Do I take a chance on battling the end boss in that room up ahead right now? Or do I go back and explore some other chambers I skipped earlier and hope I can avoid enough damage to pick up some hearts? With the threat of permadeath always looming, you have to spend at least a little time thinking about the best ways to move forward.

The visuals are also disturbing in that they blend an innocent, pixelated design more fitting to a cheerful eight-bit console game than something this twisted. The look of the game makes you expect something kid-friendly and G-rated, to the point where I couldn't quite believe that these graphics were being used to show bloody trails behind a little kid and the exploded remains of evil babies. The audio is almost as catchy as the gameplay, with the most distinctive part of it being the 80s hair metal score that sounds like it was concocted during a collaboration between Cinderella and Iron Maiden.

Come for the brilliantly designed shooter action; stay for the poo. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth may first catch your attention with its insane setting, surreal monsters, and irreverent references to Christianity, but the speedy, varied gameplay and seemingly neverending new features (which include multiple endings and new bosses after you take out mom the first time, so the replay value is nearly infinite) are what keep you coming back for more. And more. And more.

In crime, as in game development, things don't always go as planned. A suspicious passerby might call the cops in early, and then those cops might phase through a wall. The loot you expect to find might not be there, and the end-of-heist reward you're hoping for might never arrive. Civilians might try to flee in the middle of a firefight, or they might disappear through the floor.

And yet, despite the potential pitfalls and the actual flaws of Payday 2, things have a way of coming together. The tension of planning and keeping things quiet, the excitement of asserting control when all hell breaks loose, and the satisfaction of a successful score outshine any dull spots, making Payday 2 an immensely enjoyable way to team up for a life of crime.

As part of the four-man crew of Hoxton, Chains, Dallas, and Wolf, you are contracted to do jobs by a dude named Bain. He sets you up with various shady characters and presents you with a city map of constantly changing opportunities. There are around 10 distinct jobs that pop up regularly with varying difficulty levels that affect how hard and how lucrative they will be. Some are stand-alone gigs, like bank heists, store robberies, and nightclub burglaries, while others span multiple days and involve stealing art, cooking meth, transporting drugs, dealing with gang members, and stealing from senators.

Mission objectives are generally clear, though there are a number of subtleties to contend with as well. Some challenges can be mastered by experience; it won't take you long to memorize the floor plan of the bank, and you quickly become familiar with the penalty for setting off alarms in the art gallery. Others require you to be flexible; cameras and security guards aren't always in the same place, and even doors, safes, and getaway spots can vary from mission to mission. This mix of constancy and variability does a great job of making you feel more confident with each mission while simultaneously keeping you on your toes. You can never be perfectly prepared for a job, and that's the way it should be.

Unfortunately, there are also some things that are more difficult to prepare for. Strange happenings with civilian and police character models, walls that you can pull solid objects through, and other technical oddities crop up throughout Payday 2. They usually have only minor effects on your criminal activity, but they do add a sour note to the otherwise welcome unpredictability. Such issues aren't likely to derail your heists, but they are occasionally enough to turn your stealthy infiltration into a messy affair.

Keeping things quiet is one of the biggest challenges of Payday 2 because so much can go wrong. A suspicious civilian might see you put on your mask. A security camera might spot you at a distance. A guard might round the corner when you're not expecting it. The guy on the radio might not believe you when you pretend to be the guard you just knocked out. Or someone, somewhere might hear the tinkling of broken glass, and before you know it, the cops are on their way and your escape van has bugged out. Completing a job without the cavalry showing up triggers a rush of giddy satisfaction, but more often than not, you're going to have to shoot your way out.

Once the alarm has sounded, the cops are on their way, but you can still manage the situation. Taking civilian hostages delays the armed escalation, keeping the really tough enemies at bay for a while. Moving your loot to a defensible position, closing the metal shutters on a store, or finding planks to board up a window can help you hold out while you wait for your drill or lock pick or computer hack to work its magic. Meanwhile, the cops come at you, and you gun them down in droves. The gunplay is solid and the AI is aggressive, but combat is more of a war of attrition than a contest of skill. Stick around long enough, and you will inevitably be overrun, no matter how skillfully you delay and fend off the advancing waves. On tougher jobs, there is more loot to grab than you can easily get away with, tempting you to try to hold out a bit longer to get a fatter payday. Get too greedy, however, and all is lost. Payday 2 channels this classic criminal conundrum nicely, right down to the heated mid-battle disagreements between team members.

And you must have human team members if you hope to succeed at any but the most basic jobs. Friendly AI characters shoot cops and revive downed players just fine, but they don't attempt much else. Playing with a team allows you to plan your approach, adapt to the situation better, and get away with more loot. The limited number of maps means that most players have a good idea what to do and when to do it, but being able to communicate is still very important. The PC is the best platform to find talkative teammates using either voice or text chat. The Xbox 360 is the runner-up thanks to the prevalent headsets, while the PlayStation 3 lags far behind with very few talkative players.

Being on the same page as your crewmates also allows you to bring complementary skills to each job. The basic equipment options let you replenish health, resupply ammunition, jam electronic signals, or set explosive traps. As you level up and earn money and experience points, you unlock new purchasable weapons for your arsenal and are rewarded with skill points that you can put toward a variety of abilities which also cost money. (Sense a theme?) Some of these skills merely make you better at what you can already do, letting you do more damage and take less, move more quickly and quietly, and perform a variety of contextual actions more efficiently.

Other skills open up entirely new strategic possibilities. Wielding a saw as your primary weapon lets you cut through some doors and crack open ATMs. Why kill a guard when you can intimidate him into handcuffing himself or convince him to fight on your side? Reviving teammates from a distance, converting your trip mines into safe-blowing charges, equipping an automatic sentry gun, and bagging and hiding bodies are just some of the other abilities that can completely change the tempo of your jobs. It's rewarding to work toward new skills and exciting to put them into action.

Tailoring your weapons to the job at hand can also be gratifying, but the path to satisfaction isn't as reliable. You unlock weapons steadily, but weapon attachments like scopes, suppressors, stocks, barrel extensions, and the like are only doled out in an end-of-round lottery event. You may get a nice new gun attachment, but you might instead end up with a small cash bonus or materials to craft a new mask. Mask crafting is an amusing, if expensive, diversion, but this random reward system can be frustrating for players looking to improve their arsenal. Even a simple suppressor can be hard to come by, making stealthy successes even more unlikely. Some of these imbalances have been addressed in patches, while other issues persist. The PC and PS3 seem to be the most frequently updated versions, with the Xbox 360 yet to receive similar attention.

Though the PC is clearly the best platform for Payday 2, you can have a rollicking good time regardless of what system you're using. The systems and mechanics all have small flaws and limitations, but they come together to set the stage for exciting heists that you'll want to pull again and again. As long as you can find some felons to fight alongside, Payday 2 is an addictive and challenging criminal pursuit.

Longevity is tough for competitive shooters. Hardly a month goes by without new virtual arenas cropping up and enticing you into some fresh conflict, and only a few popular games manage to sustain active player bases even a year after their initial release. And then there's Team Fortress 2. Released in 2007, this class-based classic is still going strong well into its seventh year, thanks largely to its lively and creative community. Since GameSpot's original TF2 review, the game has benefited from numerous updates and made the jump to a free-to-play business model. So how well is Team Fortress 2 faring in 2014 among the current crop of competitors for your time and money?

The short answer is, it's holding up very well. The core action pits two teams of players against each other in a battle to capture points, move a cart, or steal a briefcase. The objective is always very straightforward; it's the interplay between the nine playable classes that makes things so varied and interesting. The speedy scout, the militant heavy, the diligent engineer, the conniving medic, the pesky sniper, the sneaky spy, the feisty pyro, the explosive soldier, and the even-more-explosive demoman all have unique weapons, attributes, and abilities that complement each other and clash in myriad ways. Encounters can vary widely depending on the match type and the makeup of each team, and this unpredictability is crucial to TF2's long-standing appeal.

When you come out of the gate as a heavy with a medic in tow, you're a formidable offensive force, but if a spy loops around to backstab the medic and you round the corner on a pyro, it can all come undone in a matter of seconds. Snipers can cover expected enemy paths, but rocket-jumping soldiers have a knack for finding alternative routes and raining explosive death from above. You may think you have a comparatively weak scout dead to rights, only to be stunned by a baseball and beaten to death. As you watch your giblets splatter on the ground and see a freeze-frame of your gleeful killer, it's hard not to chuckle at the sheer variety of ways you can meet an untimely demise. And the humorous quips, ridiculous outfits, and histrionic announcer help cultivate this lighthearted tone.

Of course, this core dynamic has persisted for most of TF2's life span, so if you stopped playing it a few years ago and come back for a few matches, you'll find things are very familiar. Learning the ropes and getting the hang of your chosen role is still a gratifying experience, and mastering advanced techniques doesn't just make you deadlier; it gives you more options for how to approach combat. Keeping your options open is still valuable too, because being flexible with your choice of character can help you avoid ending up on a catastrophically imbalanced squad. It is Team Fortress, after all.

But though there is much that has remained constant about the core game, there have been some notable changes over the years, as well as regular infusions of new weapons and items. Of the hundreds of things available in the online store, some can be unlocked through play, while others must be purchased with actual money. From small doodads that cost less than a dollar to massive bundles that cost hundreds, there's a wide range of ways to customize your experience.

Many of the items offer nothing more than a playful twist on the game's already cheeky cartoon aesthetic. You can buy hats, shirts, shoes, and other cosmetic gear to dress up like a character from Adult Swim or don spooky seasonal garb that you can wear only during Halloween or a full moon. Even if you don't fancy shelling out for any of this stuff, it's fun to see some visual variety as you try to light your opponents on fire.

Other weapons have more of an impact, like the ones that give your character a new chargeable and expendable power. The scout can build hype, which turns his usual double jump into a triple, quadruple, or quintuple jump, and the soldier can build rage, which allows him to rally his nearby teammates to do extra damage. Skills like these have more of a meaningful impact on the action, bringing something new to the table that your enemies must contend with. And then there are the totally out-there loadouts, like the one that turns the grenade-launching demoman into an extra from the movie Braveheart.In addition to the cosmetic options, there are a lot of weapons and items that offer small buffs or subtle tweaks to your attributes. Depending on which healing gun the medic equips, for example, he can imbue himself and his targeted ally with extra damage resistance or enable himself to match the speed of his target. Differences like these don't do much to change the core action, but they do give experienced players substantial room for strategic variation.

These options broaden the field of viable strategies, which helps keep combat lively and varied. And fortunately, none of the purchasable weapons or items tip the scales unfairly towards those willing to pay. Buffs and bonuses usually come with caveats, and the weapons that bestow new abilities are usually unlocked for free. For this review, I spent some money on goofy hats and some of the stranger weaponry on offer, like the pyro's flamethrower that actually shoots bubbles and rainbows. It was fun to play with the new gear, but I still found myself switching my loadout between free and paid weapons regularly to adapt to the match situation.

The biggest divergence from the game's origins comes in the cooperative mode, Mann vs. Machine. In it, you and a few other human players must prevent hordes of robotic incarnations of TF2's classes from delivering a bomb to your base. The money you earn from destroying robots can be spent on mid-match upgrades to your attributes and weaponry, which can be crucial to success. Even on the easiest level, the robot legions are fierce enough to test the mettle of an unorganized team. This is a mode where carefully planned weapon choices and defensive strategies can mean the difference between succeeding and having to try, try again. You can play this mode for free, but you won't be eligible to earn rare prizes or complete challenges unless you pay a dollar for a Tour of Duty ticket. Though it lacks the frenetic unpredictability of competitive play, the cooperative mode can still provide satisfaction for those dedicated enough to see it through.

But competition is the real draw, and the Team Fortress 2 community can certainly be competitive. On some servers, you might be berated for unwitting breaches of etiquette, while on others, you might be welcomed with helpful tips and ubercharges. You can even ask for help on certain servers and be paired up with another player who is willing to give you some tips through chat. The community around TF2 is an intriguing one, not just for their deep knowledge of and passion for the game, but for their creative efforts in designing new weapons, items, and maps that have since become part of the experience. It feels like a community of curators, without whom the game may well have dwindled away and passed into obsolescence years ago.

Staying relevant even a year after release is rare for a competitive shooter, and yet, here's Team Fortress 2, still lively after seven years in the business. At times it feels like the same game you could have played back then, and at other times it feels like no one will ever quite nail class-based shooter competition the way TF2 does. The experience has evolved over the years without compromising what made it so great in the first place, so though your free-to-play options may have increased considerably in the past few years, there are few that do it as well as Team Fortress 2.

More update than honest-to-goodness sequel, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive maintains much of what made the original Counter-Strike (and Counter-Strike: Source) so fantastic, while adding a couple of new game modes, both of which were based on user-made mods to the original game. In this update, Counter-Strike continues to enjoy the enthralling gameplay and near-perfect balancing that took it from a cult hit in college dorm rooms to one of the seminal games in the multiplayer first-person shooter genre.

In case you're unfamiliar, Counter-Strike is an entirely multiplayer experience. You can play offline against AI bots, but these are still merely simulating what it's like to play online, rather than really giving you a single-player game. The good news is that this is as good as online team-based shooters get. In the traditional game mode, there are two types of matches and two tiers of play. Casual level is for newer players and removes aspects like friendly fire and the need to purchase armor and ancillary items each round (more on that in a second). Ranked level is the original style of CS, with all the "realism" settings enabled, but it also features a comprehensive skill-based ranking system to try to balance teams and place good players with other good players.

Both of these tiers feature several maps--original CS maps like de_dust are reproduced here and still going strong, mixed in with entirely new maps--and each map is tied to one of two game types. In Defusal, one team (the Terrorists) must plant a bomb at a critical site and defend it until it explodes, while the other team (the Counter-Terrorists) must try to either prevent them from planting it or defuse it before it goes off. The other game type, Hostage Rescue, turns the tables. Here, the Terrorists have taken a group of AI hostages that they must protect until time runs out, while the CTs must assault their location and free the hostages.

One important facet to both of these game modes is that there are multiple short rounds in a match, and after each round you must purchase weapons, armor, grenades, and other equipment using money you earn for killing enemies, winning the round, or doing other important tasks. Thus, as games go on, winning teams tend to have better equipment, while losing teams tend to be worse off. The disadvantage is never insurmountable, but it does give teams an incentive to work, well, as a team. In serious matches, communication and planning are key, because players who die cannot respawn until after a round is over and cannot communicate with living team members.

The traditional CS modes are excellently balanced. Games are fast-paced without being unmanageable, skill is rewarded in both the planning and outfitting stages as well as in battle, and good teamwork typically beats individual skills. Pacing is fantastic, too, because you will generally die at least a few times, giving you time to observe other players' work, review your own mistakes, and plan for the next round during the downtime. Heck, even watching other players go at it can be entertaining in and of itself, as you shout at them to do this or not do that, knowing full well they can't hear you.

If you prefer no downtime, however, the two new game modes that have been added this time around should suit your fancy. Called Arms Race and Demolition, they both remove the classic purchasing mechanic and instead award you with a new weapon, instantaneously, when you make a kill. Depending on server settings, weapon awards generally go up in deadliness from an initial lousy weapon, reach an acme, and then begin to go down in usefulness, usually forcing you at last to use nothing but your knife.

Arms Race also removes the downtime of waiting after you die, and plays a lot more like a traditional deathmatch game, with much less in the way of teamwork since each individual is out to finish his slew of weapons as quickly as possible and get the win. Demolition changes this structure, instead challenging you to continue playing a more traditional CS-style game, but with your weapons getting worse and worse with each kill. Both of the new modes are tremendous fun.

No matter which modes you choose to play CS:GO in, however, you'd better be playing with a keyboard and mouse. On the PlayStation 3, playing with a controller is very difficult because CS:GO lacks the hand-holding auto-aim that console FPS players are generally used to, and because many PS3 players will likely be playing with a USB keyboard and mouse, which are both supported by CS:GO. 360 players aren't so lucky, unfortunately, as they're relegated to a controller.

This isn't really a disadvantage, of course, as everyone else on Xbox LIVE is playing with one, too, but you definitely won't be getting the ultimate CS:GO experience playing with thumbsticks and shoulder buttons. Regardless of your OS, you'll appreciate some of the bells and whistles it has appropriated from other Valve games, especially Team Fortress 2. Like in that game, you now have "nemesis" players who can dominate you by killing you consecutively, and you can take screenshots of the moment of your death, should you like to memorialize that kind of stuff.

When using a keyboard and mouse, you'll notice the controls are sharp and easily customizable. Unlike the guns in, say, Battlefield, most of CS:GO's guns do not have an aim-down-the-sight feature. There are no vehicles, special weapons, or power-ups, either. You get your gear, learn the maps, and rely on your skills to take you to the finish line. Graphics, while improved from the Source engine, are nothing fancy, and neither is sound--although veteran players will be gratified to hear that many of their favorite guns' sounds are retained from earlier versions (especially the thunderous AWP). CS:GO adds a lot of new guns, too, of various types, and even a new grenade, the incendiary grenade, which can light a small area on fire for a short time, preventing players from passing through without taking damage.

Bottom line, CS:GO adds plenty, tweaks a little, and keeps the best parts of the classic multiplayer FPS. If you're into shooters, team-based gameplay, or just classic games that are updated well, you won't do better at the moment than CS:GO.